I defer to Noam Chomsky: "Socially Responsible Investing is an Oxymoron".
I align with Glen's 3 bullet points. If I were still in an economy where my "retirement investment" could be in the orchards I developed in my youth, the fields I cleared and cultivated, or the blacksmith/cooperage/cobbler-shop I put together and equipped and trained up my children or protege's to take over from me, then I would not be expecting the UoweMe's I hoarded in my mattress to seek-rent for me.
But we do not live as such. My maternal grandparents did. My parents who were born into the stock market crash and raised into the depression avoided all forms of credit and investment beyond US Savings Bonds and Savings Accounts in a local branch of a regional Bank (backed by FDIC). They retired out of Civil Service (father USFS) and my mother, despite some paid work over the decades did not have enough quarters to get Social Security benefits. The Civil Service retirement was "good enough" and the unmortgaged homes they developed (placing mobile homes on inexpensive land and adding sweat equity to improvements) lasted as long as they needed them before returning to salvage and landfill. They never hit geriatric poverty because they were extremely careful, but they were at risk, especially outliving their actuarial tables. They were predicted to live to 70 and 72 respectively but made it 15 and 20 years longer... there went MY (measly) inheritance! Sigh.
I translated my UC (very well) managed retirement-pension into cash (IRA) when Bechtel took over LANL... it was not the best financial decision (I could have double, triple dipped?) but it got me out of the military-industrial-complex efficiently. I let the bank (LANB) invest it in ETFs and bonds as they saw fit and take some silly percentage of my portfolio off the top for their troubles. When I finally took an interest in how the UoweMes I'd been hoarding were "invested", SIR and ERP and such were vague acronyms and LANB investors couldn't tell me much about "socially responsible" anything, but they did assure me "it's OK, don't worry your pretty little head".
As a tech wonk I decided I could *actively* manage my own UoweMe's better than my mattress and the bank could... and having actually worked with investment bankers (don't get me started on that anecdote) in Data Analytics/Visualization, I felt it was worth my effort.
What I learned was that it isn't that hard to let the "tide raise all ships" nor is it hard for that tide to recede and leave you stranded. But I also learned that it is easy to be a bad investor, where bad can be A)incompetent, leading the investor to lose money to better investors like at a poker table; or B) as in making money off of our societies worst habits: Destroying the Planet; Exploiting the Vulnerable; Manipulating the Masses; Undermining Social and Democratic norms; etc. The big fat jump in tech stocks this last December was nothing more than an example of how to make money "being bad".
Like glen I hold 1 share in some stocks just to keep an eye on them, to have some skin in the game. I made some book off TSLA, AMZN, GOOG, AAPL "back in the day" but was already getting out before the principles of those companies lined up behind the Felon in Chief and his lackeys at the Inauguration... so now I hold trivial amounts just to keep track of them and remind myself that I "coulda" done well (or poorly) by throwing in with them, but I really don't need/want to do so.
I'm not so much for "effective altruism" I think it is a corollary to the Jevon's Paradox... why would I want to "rape, pillage and plunder" in one domain so I can turn around and help the victims of "rape, pillage and plunder" in another? It is also a corollary to the "kick the can down the road" paradox where I keep deferring the consequences of my actions to others, and until "later". For those without children, perhaps it is no skin off your nose as it is for those of us who push our problems into their futures for them.
My financials are pitiful compared to virtually all of the folks I worked elbow-elbow with at LANL for decades but I will not starve (my chickens' eggs and the spinach and maize and beans and squash I grow for/with them will sustain me for months at a time if all else fails). My parent's advice/example has me (now) without a mortgage, and except for the County Assessor's annual bite (to cover the costs of infrastructure I in fact DO depend on and appreciate) is significant but acceptable. Some here might find my circumstances quite comfortable, other's might find them appallingly insecure... if I outlive my actuarial tables like my parents, I may find myself living with my children or down by the river in a (rusted out) van-body. There are no suitable ice-floes in the Rio Grande these days, but even that is an option...
If I don't outlive the stash of UoweMes in my mattress I hope to return the bit of land I live on that was carved out of the San Ildfonso Pueblo in the 60's back to them (or the Tewa Women's United or similar). My children have sorted their own deals with the devil (employers, banks, etc) at this point so giving it to them when I kick would just be a distraction... they know this about me and at least pretend to approve...
Besides our AI overlords will either "take good care of us" or "turn us into biodiesel to power the computronium pavement they will have layed over my homestead" by then, and as glen pointed out recently, I can always "just let it go".
Sincerely yours, - Debbie Downer On 6/25/25 12:31 PM, glen wrote:
This one? Alex Karp - The Techno-Nationalist Behind Palantir https://youtu.be/QZrlfBE6UI4?si=FOQD9m8nxFQT_ugP As for moral compasses and the stock market, here are 3 possible ways:1. it seems baked in to many people's desire to care for themselves after they're no longer *useful* to society - in many ways, they can frame this as "why would anyone with a moral compass rely on others/strangers to take care of them when they're no longer useful" - i.e. it's your moral duty to invest money somewhere,2. my own reason - to stay aware/informed, and3. so-called effective altruism, in particular the idea that one way to help those less fortunate is to make enough money so you can give away a significant amount.On 6/25/25 10:18 AM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:Glen, I watched the video you suggested and then it disappeared for some reason. Could you please resend? Thank you. I found it very useful. I try always to be optimistic about the horrors surrounding us as the systems we've known begin to collapse. And I'm always disappointed. And I have to ask: why would anyone with even a hint of a moral compass invest in the present stock market?
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